AMBA 2 AHB - General

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1. The specification recommends that only 16 wait states are used. What should you do if more than
16 cycles are needed?

For some slaves it is acceptable to insert more than 16 wait states.

Forexample, a serial boot ROM which is only ever accessed at initial power upcould insert a larger
number of wait states and it would not affect the calculation of the system performance and latency
once system power up has been completed.

For other slaves a number of options exist. A SPLIT or RETRY response could be used to indicate that the
slave is not yet able to perform the requested data transfer, or the slave could be accessed either in
response to interrupts or after polling a status register, in either case indicating that the slave is now able
to respond in an acceptable number of cycles.

2. Why is a burst not allowed to cross a 1 kilobyte boundary?

If an AHB slave samples HSELx at the start of a burst transaction, it knows it will be selected for the
duration of the burst. Also, a slave which isnot selected at the start of a burst will know that it will not
become selected until a new burst is started.

1 kilobyte is the smallest area an AHB slave may occupy in the memory map. Therefore, if a burst did
cross a 1 kilobyte boundary, the access could start accessing one slave at the beginning of the burst and
then switch to another on the boundary, which must not happen for the above reason.

The 1 kilobyte boundary has been chosen as it is large enough to allow reasonable length bursts, but
small enough that peripherals can be aligned to the 1 kilobyte boundary without using up too much of
the available memory map.

3. Can an AHB master be connected directly to an AHB slave?

Any slave which does not use SPLIT responses can be connected directly to an AHB master. If the slave
does use SPLIT responses then a simplified version of the arbiter is also required.

If an AHB master is connected directly to an AHB slave it is important to ensure that the slave drives
HREADY high during reset and that the select signal HSEL for the slave is tied permanently high.

4. What is the state of the AHB signals during reset?

The specification states that during reset the bus signals should be at valid levels. This simply means that
the signals should be logic '0' or '1', but not Hi-Z. The actual logic levels driven are left up to the designer.
HTRANS is the only signal specified during reset, with a mandatory value of IDLE.

It is important that HREADY is high during reset. If all slaves in the system drive HREADY high during reset
then this will ensure that this is the case. However, if slaves are used which do not drive HREADY high
during reset it should be ensured that a slave which does drive HREADY high is selected at reset.

5. Can a BUSY transfer occur at the end of a burst?

A BUSY transfer can only occur at the end of an undefined length burst (INCR). A BUSY transfer cannot
occur at the end of a fixed length burst (SINGLE, INCR4, WRAP4, INCR8, WRAP8, INCR16, WRAP16).

6. What is a default slave?

If the memory map of a system does not define the full 4 gigabyte address space then a default slave is
required, which is selected when an access is attempted to the empty areas of the memory map. The
default slave should use an OKAY response for IDLE/BUSY transfers and an ERROR response sequence for
NONSEQ/SEQ transfers.

7. Is a default slave really necessary?

If the entire 4 gigabyte address space is defined then a default slave is not required. If, however, there
are undefined areas in the memory map then it is important to ensure that a spurious access to a non-
existent address location will not lock up the system. The functionality of the default slave is extremely
simple and it will often make sense to implement this within the decoder.

8. Is a dummy master really necessary?

A dummy master is necessary in any system which has a slave that can give SPLIT transfer responses. The
dummy master is required so that something can be granted the bus if all the other masters have
received a SPLIT response.

No logic is required for the dummy master and it can be implemented by simply tying off the inputs to
the master address/control multiplexer for the dummy master position. The requirements for a dummy
master are that HTRANS is driven to IDLE, HLOCK is driven low, and all other master outputs are driven
to legal values.
9. Is it specified that HPROT, HSIZE and HWRITE remain constant throughout a burst?

Yes, the control signals must remain constant throughout the duration of a burst.

10. What default state should be used for the HREADY and HRESP outputs from a slave?

It is recommended that the default value for HREADY is high and the default value for HRESP is OKAY.
This combination ensures that the slave will respond correctly to IDLE transfers to the slave, even if the
slave is in some form of power saving mode.

11. Is HREADY an input or an output from slaves?

An AHB slave must have the HREADY signal as both an input and an output.

HREADY is required as an output from a slave so that the slave can extend the data phase of a transfer.

HREADY is also required as an input so that the slave can determine when the previously selected slave
has completed its final transfer and the first data phase transfer for this slave is about to commence.

Each AHB Slave should have an HREADY output signal (conventionally named HREADYOUT) which is
connected to the Slave-to-Master Multiplexer. The output of this multiplexer is the global HREADY signal
which is routed to all masters on the AHB and is also fed back to all slaves as the HREADY input.

12. How many masters can there be in an AHB system?

The AHB specification caters for up to 16 masters. However, allowing for a dummy bus master means the
maximum number of real bus masters is actually 15. By convention bus master number 0 is allocated to
the dummy bus master.

13. Can a master change the address/control signals during a waited transfer?

Yes. If the address/control signals are indicating an IDLE transfer then the master can change to a real
transfer (NONSEQ) when HREADY is low.

However, if a master is indicating a real transfer (NONSEQ or SEQ) then it cannot cancel this during a
waited transfer unless it receives a SPLIT, RETRY or ERROR response.

14. When a master rebuilds a burst which has been terminated early are there any limitations on how
it rebuilds the burst?

The only limitation is that the master uses legal burst combinations to rebuild the burst. For example, if a
master was performing an 8 beat burst,but had only completed 3 transfers before losing control of the
bus, then the remaining 5 transfers could be performed either by using a 1 beat SINGLE burst followed
by a 4 beat INCR4 burst, or it could be performed using a 5 beat undefined length INCR burst.

For simplicity it is recommended that masters use INCR bursts to rebuild the remaining transfers.

15. What is the recommended default value for HPROT?

Many bus masters will not be able to generate accurate protection information and for these bus
masters it is recommended that the HPROT encoding shows, Non-cacheable, Non-bufferable, Privileged,
Data Accesses which corresponds to HPROT[3:0] = 4'b0011.

16. Do all slaves have to support the BUSY transfer type?

Yes. All slaves must support the BUSY transfer type to ensure they are compatible with any bus master.

17. What system support is required if a slave can be powered down or have its clock stopped?

If a slave access is attempted while that slave is in a power down state or has had its clock stopped, you
must ensure that an access will cause the power/clock to be restored, or else configure the AHB decoder
up to redirect any such accesses to the dummy slave so that the system does not hang forever when an
access to the device is made when it is disabled.

Redirecting the access in this way will ensure that random "IDLE" addresses are treated with the HREADY
high and HRESP=OKAY default response, but real accesses (NONSEQ or SEQ) will be detected with an
ERROR response.

18. When can Early Burst Termination occur

Bursts can be early terminated either as a result of the Arbiter removing the HGRANT to a master part
way through a burst, or after a slave returns a non-OKAY response to any beat of a burst. Note however
that a master cannot decide to terminate a defined length burst unless prompted to do so by the Arbiter
or Slave responses.

All AHB Masters, Slaves and Arbiters must be designed to support Early Burst Termination.
19. Does the address have to be aligned, even for IDLE transfers?

Yes. The address should be aligned according to the transfer size (HSIZE) even for IDLE transfers. This will
prevent spurious warnings from bus monitors used during simulation.

20. What is the difference between a dummy bus master and a default bus master?

The term default bus master is used to describe the master that is granted when none of the masters in
the system are requesting access to the bus. Usually the bus master which is most likely to request the
bus is made the default master.

The dummy bus master is a master which only performs IDLE transfers. It is required in a system so the
arbiter can grant a master which is guaranteed not to perform any real transfers. The two cases when
the arbiter would need to do this are when a SPLIT response is given to a locked transfer and when a
SPLIT response is given and all other masters have already been SPLIT.

21. Is it legal for a master to change HADDR when a transfer is extended?

If a master is indicating that it wants to do a NONSEQ, SEQ or BUSY transfer then it cannot change the
address during an extended transfer (when HREADY is low) unless it receives an ERROR, RETRY or SPLIT
response.

If the master is indicating that it wants to do an IDLE transfer then it may change the address.

22. Can HTRANS change whilst HREADY is low?

In general, an AHB master should not change control signals whilst HREADY is low. However it is
allowable to change HTRANS in the following conditions:

* HTRANS = IDLE

The AHB master is performing internal operations and has not yet committed to a bus transfer. However
during the AHB wait states (HREADY low) the master may determine that a bus transfer is required and
change HTRANS on the next cycle to NONSEQ.

* HTRANS = BUSY

HTRANS is being used to give the master time to complete internal operations, which may be entirely
independent of HREADY (i.e. wait states on the AHB). Therefore HTRANS can change on the next cycle to
any legal value, i.e. SEQ if the burst is to continue, IDLE if the burst has completed, NONSEQ if a separate
burst is to begin.
* HRESP = SPLIT/RETRY

As stated in the AHB specification, a master must assert IDLE on HTRANS during the second cycle of the
two-cycle SPLIT or RETRY slave response so HTRANS will change value from the first cycle to the second
cycle of the response.

* HRESP = ERROR

The master is permitted to change HTRANS in reaction to an ERROR response in the same way as in
reaction to a SPLIT/RETRY response and cancel any further beats in the current burst (even if HBURST is
indicating a defined-length burst). In this case HTRANS changes to IDLE on the second cycle of the
response. Alternatively, the master is permitted to continue with the current transfers.

23. What are the different bursts used for?

Typically a master would use wrapping bursts for cache line fills where the master wants to access the
data it requires first and then it completes the burst to fetch the remaining data it requires for the cache
line fill.

Incrementing bursts are used by masters, such as DMA controllers, that are filling a buffer in memory
which may not be aligned to a particular address boundary.

24. What sequences of transfers types (HTRANS) can occur on the bus?

The following examples show some of the sequences of HTRANS that can occur on the bus:

A normal burst of four transfers followed by an IDLE.

N-S-S-S-I

A normal burst of four transfers which includes BUSY transfers.

N-S-B-S-B-S-I

A burst of four transfers followed by another burst.

N-S-S-S-N-S-S-S-I

A single transfer followed by a burst of four transfers.

N-N-S-S-S-I

A single transfer followed by an IDLE

N-I
An undefined length burst which concludes with a BUSY transfer.

N-B-S-B-S-B-I

An undefined length burst which concludes with a BUSY transfer and is followed immediately by another
burst.

N-B-S-B-S-B-N-S

25. How should AHB to APB bridges handle accesses that are not 32-bits?

The bridge should simply pass the entire 32-bit data bus through the bridge. Please note that when
transfers less than 32-bits are performed to an APB slave it is important to ensure that the peripheral is
located on the appropriate bits of the APB data bus.

_______________________________________________________________________________

AMBA AHB - Arbitration

1.When should a master assert and deassert the HLOCK signal for a locked transfer?

The HLOCK signal must be asserted at least one cycle before the start of the address phase of a locked
transfer. This is required so that the arbiter can sample the HLOCK signal as high at the start of the
address phase.

The master should deassert the HLOCK signal when the address phase of the last transfer in the locked
sequence has started.

2. Can an arbiter be designed to always allow bursts to complete?

A SPLIT, RETRY or ERROR response from a slave can always cause a burst to be early terminated. This is
outwith the control of the Arbiter and so must be supported.

Undefined length INCR bursts cannot have their end point predicted, so there is no efficient way that an
Arbiter design can allow the burst to complete before granting another master. INCR bursts must be
arbitrated on a cycle by cycle basis.

Defined length INCRx and WRAPx bursts can have their beats counted, and so allowed to complete by
the Arbiter. However because of the AHB arbitration synchronous timing, there is no way to avoid
possibly terminating a burst immediately after the first transfer of the burst has been indicated.

The Arbiter only knows that a defined length burst is in progress by sampling the HBURST bus. However
the first point at which HBURST can be sampled is after the first clock cycle of the first burst beat, by
which time the Arbiter may already have decided to grant another master and will have changed the
HGRANT outputs accordingly. Only a combinatorial path from HBURST to HGRANT would allow the burst
to be detected in time to avoid early termination in this scenario, but combinatorial paths in the AHB bus
are not allowed. ask ARM

3. Why is HADDR sometimes shown as an input to the arbiter?

The address bus, HADDR, is not required as an input to the arbiter but in some system designs it may be
useful to use the address bus to determine a good point to change over between bus masters. For
example, the arbiter could be designed to change bus ownership when a burst of transfers reaches a
quad word boundary.

4. When can the HGRANT signal change?

The HGRANT signal can change in any cycle and the following cases are possible:

* It is possible that the HGRANT signal may be asserted and then removed before the current transfer
completes. This is acceptable because the HGRANT signal is only sampled by masters when HREADY is
high.

* A master can be granted the bus without requesting it.

* The above point also means that it is possible to be granted the bus in the same cycle that it is
requested. This can occur if the master is coincidentally granted the bus in the same cycle that it
requests it.

5. What is the relationship between the HLOCK signal and the HMASTLOCK signal?

At the start of the address phase of every transfer the arbiter will sample the HLOCK signal of the master
that is about to start driving the address bus and if HLOCK is asserted at this point then HMASTLOCK will
be asserted by the arbiter for the duration of the address phase of the transfer.

6. When should a master deassert its HBUSREQ signal?

For an undefined length burst (INCR) a master must keep its HBUSREQ signal asserted until it has started
the address phase of the last transfer in the burst. This will mean that if the penultimate transfer in the
burst is zero wait state then the master may be granted the bus for an additional transfer at the end of
an undefined length burst.
For a defined length burst the master can deassert the HBUSREQ signal once the master has been
granted the bus for the first transfer. This can be done because the arbiter is able to count the transfers
in the burst and keep the master granted until the burst completes.

However it is not a mandatory requirement for an Arbiter to allow a burst to complete, so the master
will have to re-assert HBUSREQ if the Arbiter removes HGRANT before the burst has been completed.

7. When will the arbiter grant another master after a locked transfer?

The arbiter will always grant the master an extra transfer at the end of a locked sequence, so the master
is guaranteed to perform one transfer with the HMASTLOCK signal low at the end of the locked
sequence. This coincides with the data phase of the last transfer in the locked sequence.

During this time the arbiter can change the HGRANT signals to a new bus master, but if the data phase of
the last locked transfer receives either a SPLIT or RETRY response then the arbiter will drive the HGRANT
signals to ensure that either the master performing the locked sequence remains granted on the bus for
a RETRY response, or the Dummy master is granted the bus for the SPLIT response.

8. Can a master deassert HLOCK during a burst?

The AHB specification requires that all address phase timed control signals (other than HADDR and
HTRANS) remain constant for the duration of a burst.

Although HLOCK is not an address phase timed signal, it does directly control the HMASTLOCK signal
which is address phase timed.

Therefore HLOCK must remain high for the duration of a burst, and can only be deasserted such that the
following HMASTLOCK signal changes after the final address phase of the burst.

9. If a master is currently granted the bus by default, how many cycles before starting an non-IDLE
transfer does it have to assert HBUSREQ?

None. It can start a non IDLE transfer immediately.

10. Can a master perform transfers other than IDLE when the bus was granted to it, but not requested
by the master?

Yes. A master can perform transfers other than IDLE when it had not requested the bus. Please note that
in this case it is still recommended that the master asserts its request signal so that the arbiter does not
change ownership of the bus to a lower priority master while the transfers are in progress.

AMBA 2 APB - General

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1. Why is there no wait signal on the APB?

The APB has been designed to implement as simple an interface as possible. Having this simple design
makes it much easier to connect new APB peripherals and makes the analysis of the system performance
easier to calculate.

Although many APB peripherals are slow devices, such as UARTs, they are normally accessed via control
registers. Typically the driver software will first access a status register to determine that data is available
and only then access the data register. Both of these accesses are possible without the addition of wait
states and therefore the peripheral can easily be accessed as an APB device.

Peripherals which do require wait states can be designed as AHB slaves and in the rare case that a design
does include a large number of these peripherals then a secondary stub AHB can be used to reduce the
loading on the main system bus.

2. How should AHB to APB bridges handle accesses that are not 32-bits?

The bridge should simply pass the entire 32-bit data bus through the bridge. Please note that when
transfers less than 32-bits are performed to an APB slave it is important to ensure that the peripheral is
located on the appropriate bits of the APB data bus